Detroit Graffiti is a book which features lots of photos of Detroit and their graffiti. It mentions that the artists have a code – never paint on functioning businesses, never paint inhabited residences and never paint and occupied church. With the decline in Detroit businesses due to the recession, there are plenty of spots around for them to paint. There is a map in the beginning of the book which shows the areas of the city that are covered in each chapter of the book. The graffiti can often camouflage blight and make a run down building look a lot more appealing. The book did feature a lot of images of tags, but there were some large murals that were absolutely amazing. One in particular was a mural with the Avengers that is in downtown Detroit. A very interesting read.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
In the past three or four years, Detroit has become a “spraycation” spot for graffiti artists. Formerly known as the automotive capital of the world, the media now refers to the Motor City as a bankrupt ruin—a shadow of its former self. Thanks to the city’s street artists, however, Detroit is experiencing an artistic renaissance. The author has recorded the work produced by these graffiti writers and documented the evolution of Detroit street art culture in more than a dozen neighborhoods in and around this resilient Midwest city between 2008 and 2013. This photographic dossier is the first book to exclusively feature graffiti from Detroit, where one in every five structures is vacant, abandoned, or dilapidated. As industry disappears, the number of vacant walls increases, drawing the attention of the most talented graffiti artists and writers on the planet.